Edwin Watson (28 May 1914 – 12 June 1944) was a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

, who played for

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. The club have been mem ...

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. ...

and Bradford Park Avenue. He was killed in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He was born in

Pittenweem Pittenweem ( ) is a fishing village and civil parish in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,747. Etymology The name derives from Pictish and Scottish Gaelic. "Pit-" represents Pictish ''pett'' 'pl ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

, Scotland.

Military service and death

Watson served as a flight sergeant in No. 201 Squadron RAF of the

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) was established in 1936 to support the preparedness of the U.K. Royal Air Force in the event of another war. The Air Ministry intended it to form a supplement to the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF) ...

during the Second World War. He is known to have served on two missions as an air gunner on a Short Sunderland III conducting anti-submarine sweeps from

RAF Pembroke Dock Royal Air Force Pembroke Dock or more simply RAF Pembroke Dock was a Royal Air Force Seaplane and Flying Boat station located at Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The Royal Navy contingent left in 1926 with the Royal Air Force occupying the ...

over the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...

. On 7 June 1944, Watson's Sunderland located off

Cape Ortegal Ortegal is a ''comarca'' in the north of the Galician Province of A Coruña, Spain. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Cantabrian Sea to the north, the Province of Lugo to the east, the comarca of O Eume to the south, and comarca of Ferrol Fe ...

, Spain and sunk it with

depth charges A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive hydraulic shock. Most depth charges use ...

, killing all 50 crew on board the

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...

. Five days later, on 12 June 1944, the Sunderland encountered , and conducted depth charge raids on it. The Sunderland is thought to have been shot down by

flak Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

from the submarine's

anti-aircraft guns Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

during the attack, killing everybody on board, including Watson. His body was not recovered from the wreckage, and he is remembered on the

Runnymede Memorial The Air Forces Memorial, or Runnymede Memorial, in Englefield Green, near Egham, Surrey, England is a memorial dedicated to some 20,456 men and women from air forces of the British Empire who were lost in air and other operations during World W ...

. In 2021, he was added to the Huddersfield Town 'roll of honour'.14th name added to Town's 'roll of honour'
Huddersfield Town AFC, 19 June 2021

References

* 1914 births 1944 deaths Scottish footballers People from Pittenweem Footballers from Fife Association football forwards English Football League players Scottish Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players Crossgates Primrose F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Scottish airmen Bradford (Park Avenue) A.F.C. players Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II Royal Air Force airmen {{Scotland-footy-forward-1910s-stub